Category: Foreign News

By Zhong Sheng from People’s Daily

The economic growth target set by China, its declaration to further relax controls over market access, and a series of new moves to deepen reforms have made headlines of foreign media after the government work report was delivered to the annual legislative session on March 5.

The topics they covered include China’s announcement to shorten the negative list for foreign investment, permit wholly foreign funded enterprises to operate in more sectors, as well as its decision to deepen reforms in sectors including power, oil and gas, and railways, and make the competitive aspects fully market based.

Things are always changing and developing. Reforms with keen determination and effective actions will enable a country to keep abreast with the times and grasp opportunities at the first moment.

It is recognized worldwide that China’s improved quality in economic growth is resulted from its unremitting efforts to comprehensively deepen reform, whose contribution can be better understood if observing China’s eye-catching economic performance in 2018 against the global landscape.

After the outbreak of the global financial crisis, some developed countries were clouded by widening wealth gap, decline of traditional industries, unemployment of blue-collar workers and other contradictions due to sluggish reforms.

In China, with a strong commitment to push ahead with a supply-side structural reform, the world’s second largest economy maintained a medium to high-speed growth, realized a more sustained development and created more sense of gaining to its people.

At the time when the world economy was testified by multiple risks including rising tide of protectionism, tight liquidity and gloomy market demands, China is busy with translating the “risks” into “opportunities” by solidifying its domestic strength.

It boosted global market confidence by trying hard to drive a high-quality growth with greater reforms and higher-level opening up, and releasing more reform dividends.

In the eyes of Stephen Perry, chairman of the UK-based 48 Group Club, “comprehensively deepening reforms” is an engine driving the growth of Chinese economy.

He attributed what China made today to a persistence in its own development path amidst the complicated international environment, to the solid steps in comprehensively deepening reforms, and to its commitment to build an open world economy.

Reforms provide energy for development, while development creates precondition to reform.

Chinese President Xi Jinping has also offered a description to the relationship between reforms and development by saying that reform is able to inject strong impetus into development process.

According to him, the reforms have been accompanying China’s development in the whole journey of its progress.

Following the philosophy, China has made a series of epoch-making reforms to escort its course for high-quality development, and speed up China’s marches towards growth.

The country has tried hard to raise the efficiency of resource utilization by eliminating ineffective supply and weeding out outdated production capacity, accelerate economic restructuring by fostering new drivers and upgrading traditional engines, as well as seek green growth by discarding growth rate fetish.

“China will continue to pursue reforms at its own pace and in its own way,” an article published on Project Syndicate previously decoded the secrets to China’s success.

A functioned governance system and sound administration capacity can back up the country to reform as planned in a steady pace.

Structural factors are still standing on the way to hinder the world’s medium- and long-term growth, which means that structural reform is still a key agenda faced by the whole world.

When pushing ahead with reforms, China’s strong leadership and ability to act has provided reference for policy-makers in worldwide.

As the world is undergoing unprecedented changes in centuries, China’s endeavor to continue comprehensively deepening reforms will help the country renew its miracle. Its steps along the course not only keep abreast with historic trend, but also lead development in the era.

By Li Xinyi from People’s Daily

Many of the leaders of China’s tech giants have offered policy suggestions during the ongoing “two sessions” in Beijing. The proposals are mainly about how to support the development of the real economy through the internet.

These lawmakers and political advisors gathered in Beijing for the 13th National People’s Congress (NPC) and the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), opening on March 5 and March 3, respectively.

Internet companies are digital assistants helping traditional enterprises develop rather than their competitors, said Pony Ma, Tencent’s chairman and CEO, and an NPC deputy.

He stated that the development of “industrial internet”, integration of industry and the internet will provide historical opportunities and technical conditions for high-quality development of the real economy.

Great efforts should be made to advance the construction of information infrastructure in the development of industrial internet, including accelerating comprehensive commercial deployment of 5G and IPv6, he said, adding that China should also promote innovative development of cloud computing, encourage rapid development of cloud platforms such as industrial cloud and financial cloud, in a bid to accelerate digital transformation of the real economy.

Robin Li, Baidu founder and a CPPCC member held that artificial intelligence (AI) will further promote the development of road transportation and medical industry, suggesting the country establish a data sharing and usage mechanism, and encourage local authorities to explore and establish intelligent transportation solutions.

The standards for filling out electronic medical records should be improved, he suggested, adding that medical institutions should be encouraged to strengthen cooperation with research institutes and enterprises, and the technical standards and legal guarantee for data applications should be strengthened.

Ding Lei, director and CEO of NetEase, as well as a CPPCC member, pointed out that further implementation of internet plus advanced manufacturing will promote high-quality economic growth, at a time when China continues optimizing and upgrading its economic structure.

He suggested that the development of the industrial Internet of Things (IoT) should be deepened to promote advanced manufacturing, noting that AI and big data should be fully used so as to better understand user needs, optimize production and advance intelligent, high-end and market-oriented development of China’s manufacturing industry.

Yang Yuanqing, chairman and CEO of Lenovo Group, as well as a deputy to the NPC, called for more efforts to integrate artificial intelligence with the internet, to create more “efficiency dividends” and to promote high-end manufacturing in China.

He suggested greater policy support for the smart IoT industry to refine the standards for policy implementation. Yang also called for more benchmarking cases of smart IoT to promote feasible experience.

Xiaomi Group’s founder, chairman and CEO Lei Jun, who is a deputy to the NPC, believes that IoT enjoys broad application prospects, which will bring new development opportunities for manufacturing, agriculture, healthcare, security and other sectors. Industrial IoT applications should be accelerated to help intelligent transformation of factories.

He also called for the development of smart agriculture to boost the implementation of the rural revitalization strategy, and wider application of medical IoT to help build a healthy China.

China will work to transform and upgrade traditional industries, as stated in this year’s government work report.

To promote the development of high-quality manufacturing, the country will strengthen the foundations of industry and the capacity for technological innovation, boost the integrated development of advanced manufacturing and modernized services, and work faster to make China strong in manufacturing, the report stated.
The country will create industrial internet platforms and expand Intelligent Plus initiatives to facilitate transformation and upgrading in manufacturing, according to the report.

The NPC Standing Committee has included in its five-year legislative plan a number of laws related to AI, such as the digital security law, the personal information protection law and the revision to the law on scientific and technological progress.

Staff members display an industrial smart sheet metal stamping model. Photo by Chen Xiaogen from People’s Daily Online

Agency report

“The move is a signal of China’s firm determination to further open up, improve the business environment and push forward globalization,” Stephane Rinderknech, L’Oreal China CEO, told the Global Times on March 5.

At the threshold of a new chapter of reform and opening-up, reviewing the draft of the Foreign Investment Law during the two sessions to accelerate the legislation process has been widely anticipated by foreign companies.

Stephane Rinderknech said L’Oreal has long been a beneficiary of China’s continuous opening-up and improvement in the business environment. Especially in recent years, the company has witnessed the accelerated launch of favorable policies in more areas including tax cuts, administration and delegation of powers streamlining, and effective regulation and market access. The holding of the first China International Import Expo in November 2018 is the best example of this process.

An increasingly open, fair, predictable and favorable business climate protected by legislation will definitely help the company develop with lower costs and higher efficiency. In this way, it can reinforce its focus on research and innovation, quality manufacturing, consumer service, local talent development, sustainability, and accelerating product launches to make more contributions to Chinese consumers and the market, he said.

As the first company to conduct trials of online filing of domestic non-special use cosmetics in the China (Shanghai) Pilot Free Trade Zone, the company has accelerated introduction of products to enrich consumers’ choices and meet their demand for more premium and personalized products, he added.

“We are looking forward to continuous opening-up in more areas and greater scale, like further aligning the tax system with international practice, promoting pilot programs of free trade zones in more cities in China, and exploring more innovative models to review personalized beauty products,” he said.

The company, which entered China in 1997, has moved from a foreign investor to a deeply localized company with local operating capabilities and resources including manufacturing, innovation, management and talent development.

Source: Global Times/People’s Daily

L’Oreal said recently that its sales in China rose by a double-digit amount in 2018, the highest growth rate in the past 14 years.

By Fang Yuan, Li Zong, Wang Hailin

The prospering border trade of China is a reflection of the great vitality of the country’s opening up, as China has just celebrated the 40th anniversary of reform and opening up at the end of last year.

The convenient custom clearance services at ports in Heilongjiang province and Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, as well as the changes taking place in border areas all indicate what Chinese leaders has proposed – “China’s door of opening-up will not be closed and only open even wider”, one of the most powerful lines made by China in recent years. The average customs clearance time in Heilongjiang’s Suifenhe Port has been cut by over a third after an expansion project, and the handling capacity has also been enlarged to 38.5 million tons at this port located in a key development and opening-up zone.
The reduced custom clearance time has brought huge benefits to Wang Yingdong, a senior manager of the Suifenhe Lanyang International Cargo Transportation Co.,Ltd.
“Time is everything for vegetable and fruit exporters like us. It was not easy for us to preserve the products as we had to spend a whole day clearing customs, but now we enjoy instant services for customs clearance, and it’s very convenient,” she told People’s Daily.
Besides, highway crossing points also adopted the one-stop checking and clearance system that only takes 20 seconds to pass through.
Last year, the State Council approved the establishment of an experimental zone for border tourism in Dongxing, Fangchenggang of Guangxi. Starting from exit & entry facilitation, all-for-one tourism promotion, and tourism cooperation expansion, the local government is pushing forward the restructuring and upgrading of local tourism.
Dongxing is the only Chinese port city that borders by sea and land with a country in the Association of Southeast Asian Nations. The city and Vietnam’s Mong Cai are neighbors facing each other across a river.
Thanks to a renovation project of the port city, the capacity of daily personnel exchange between the two cities has improved to 50,000 from the original 20,000. In addition, it only takes 6 seconds for each person to cross the border.
An official from local immigration inspection station introduced that over 1.63 million tourists entered or exited China via Dongxing from Jan. 1 to Feb. 14 this year. The number of tourists travelling to Vietnam exceeded 0.4 million, up 58.4 percent over the previous year, hitting a record high, the official added.
Erenhot, Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region, also witnessed the rapid development of border trade, as loads of commodities were exported to Belt and Road countries by China-Europe freight trains via the city after the Spring Festival.
With the in-depth promotion of the Belt and Road construction and the continuous expansion of trade among China, Mongolia and Russia, logistics business at the ports of Erenhot is gaining increasing vitality.
The city’s railway port handles more than 70 percent of the transportation between China and Mongolia and customs transit between China and Russia, seeing increasing imports and exports year by year.
The port has gradually developed into a comprehensive logistics system that integrates transportation, storage, processing, and information management, serving as a hub of the Silk Road on the grasslands.
From Heilongjiang, Guangxi to Inner Mongolia, border trade ports are thriving under the reform and opening-up policy, just as what President Xi Jinping pointed out in his New Year’s speech – “China, as a country of people on the move, is energetically pursuing prosperity.”

Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba’s cross-border retail platform AliExpress has launched an online ordering option for car consumers in Russia by teaming up with Chinese maker Chery.

Chery, on March 5, opened its flagship store on the retail platform to sell off-road models under the Tiggo line, along with accessories and spare parts.

After placing an order and making down payment online, Russian consumers can pick up the car at designated offline stores upon the settlement of balance payment.

This new project will address Chinese auto brands’ difficulties in supplying spare parts due to insufficient overseas channels, said Liu Wei, head of AliExpress in Russia.

A variety of auto spare parts on the platform, as well as the local logistics centers built together with Cainiao Network, Alibaba’s delivery arm, will significantly reduce Chinese automaker’s capital investment in overseas supply chain and improve supply efficiency, Liu added.

A total of 1.8 million cars were sold in Russia in 2018, up 12.8 percent year on year, and maintaining positive growth for 12 consecutive months, according to a survey by the Association of European Businesses (AEB).

Indigenous Chinese brands represented by Chery and Lifan are popular in Russia, as they have been listed among the best-selling Chinese cars for a long time.

The survey also indicates that 19,000 Chinese cars were sold in Russia in the first seven months of 2018, a year-on-year increase of 17 percent.

The AliExpress platform saw growing demand for auto products. In last year’s shopping spree, which falls on Nov. 11 every year, auto products in Russian market registered a sales volume that was 20 times more than average.

Among the lists sold by the platform, car is one of the most popular goods for consumers in countries and regions including Spain, France, Poland, the Middle East and South America. The platform also plans to enrich the available car brands and lines.

Chery now has nearly 100 offline stores throughout Russia, encompassing its European part to the Far East region.
In the future, the automaker will enrich its service lists by offering distribution, installation and maintenance of auto parts and enabling same-day delivery for customers.

（Ji Peijuan, People’s Daily, and Bo Chan, huanqiu.com contributed to the story.）

By Shang Kaiyuan from People’s Daily

Financial support for micro and small, as well as private enterprises is the most important part of supply-side structural reform in the financial sector, according to Guo Shuqing, chairman of the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission (CBIRC).

Guo made the remarks when giving an interview after the opening meeting of the second session of the 13th National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on Mar. 5.

Calling the financing difficulty and the high financing cost for micro and small enterprises a tough challenge of the world, Guo made high evaluation on China’s efforts in this regard.

There are 4,588 financial organizations in China’s banking industry, he introduced, adding that major banks’ share in the industry was reduced to around 38 percent from over 50 percent over the past decade.

The fall of share of major banks was a synchronous process with the expanding number of small- and medium-sized banks whose businesses were more tailored for micro and small enterprises, Guo noted.

In addition, major banks, including five largest State-owned commercial banks and 12 joint-stock commercial banks, have all established inclusive finance departments to provide financial services specifically for micro and small enterprises, he said.

Reports confirmed that by the end of 2018, China witnessed a 21.8-percent growth from the year beginning in the inclusive loans for micro and small enterprises with a total credit line not exceeding 10 million yuan ($1.5 million) for each borrower. “It’s indeed a high growth,” Guo noted.

According to this year’s government work report, state-owned banks are requested to grant 30 percent more of the loans to small and micro businesses, which is an approachable target in Guo’s view.

Chinese banks have made effective explorations on how to acquire sufficient information before offering loans to private, as well as micro and small enterprises, a big challenge for many financial institutions, Guo introduced.

Thanks to the application of big data and internet, some banks are able to respond quickly to lending demands and keep a low ratio of non-performing loans (NPL). For instance, the NPL ratio of China Construction Bank was kept at only round 1 percent. In addition, the leading online private commercial bank MYbank was also keeping a low NPL ratio, Guo said.

“We will further share and promote these experiences among banks of all sizes, and take more measures to support the development of the private, as well as micro and small businesses,” Guo remarked.

As supply-side structural reform deals with many aspects, insurance and security sectors also need to carry out bold innovation to offer more financial support for the private sector, and micro and small enterprises, Guo stressed.

By Huan Xiang from People’s Daily

The average rates for mobile internet services in China will be further reduced by more than 20 percent this year to better meet the growing consumption demands of the people, said Miao Wei, Minister of Industry and Information Technology.

Miao made the remarks during an interview after the opening meeting of the second session of the 13th National People’s Congress at the Great Hall of the People in Beijing on March 5th, citing a government work report delivered on the meeting.

The average broadband service rates for small and medium enterprises will be lowered by another 15 percent, Miao added.

He introduced that this year the country would carry out demonstration projects of gigabit broadband services across the country.

In addition, subscribers will be allowed to freely switch networks by the end of 2019, which means mobile users will be able to shift from one operator to another without changing numbers if they are dissatisfied with the original services.

Facilitating faster and more affordable internet connection has been incorporated in China’s government work reports for years, attracting high attention from the Chinese citizens.

The country has over-fulfilled its targets on internet facilitation it raised in the 2018 government work report ahead of schedule.
Last year, the coverage of optical fiber network was expanded to 98 percent among all villages in China.

Over 70 percent of Chinese households had access to megabit optical fiber networks by the end of 2018, and the number of mobile phone users of the country has hit 1.56 billion as of the end of this February.

By Yang Xun from People’s Daily

China has become a global leader in prevention and control of infectious diseases, former director-general of the World Health Organization (WHO) Margaret Chan Fung Fu-chun said on March 3.

Chan, also a member of the 13th National Committee of the Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said on the sidelines of the annual session of the top political advisory body.

In the time of globalization, communicable diseases, including SARS, bird flu and Ebola, spread very fast, which requires every country and region to build their capacity and strengthen their health systems to respond, she pointed out.

China is now a global leader in preventing and controlling disease emergencies, said Chan, also a member of the Council of Advisers of the Boao Forum for Asia.

She added that Chinese emergency medical teams were among the first to pass the verification of the WHO, which demonstrated their world-leading standards.

The country has done tremendous amount of work in global health cooperation, living up to its responsibility as a major country, hailed the former WHO chief.

Chan highlighted a Memorandum of Understanding signed during her stint at the WHO between China and the organization, which dedicated to promoting international health cooperation along the Belt and Road and building a community with shared future for mankind.

It has brought tangible benefits to the people of all countries, she said.

Born in China’s Hong Kong Special Administrative Region, she was the first Chinese served to head WHO and left the position in 2017.

89.4 percent of respondents are optimistic about the application of AI technology in the next five years. It is the conclusion of a survey jointly launched by China Youth Daily and Megvii, a Beijing-based facial recognition technology company.

The survey covers 2,006 people, 3.5 percent of whom work in the AI industry
The world’s first synthetic AI anchorwoman took to the screen during the ongoing annual sessions of China’s top political advisory body and top legislature, adding a new scenario for the application of AI technology.

Among all surveyed respondents, people are most familiar with automated driving, intelligent robots and smart home devices when it comes to AI, accounting for 53.7, 53.4, 44.8 percent respectively.

On top of these areas, smart medical treatment, intelligent devices and AI education are also familiar application scenarios. Like tap water, electricity and other basic facilities, artificial intelligence is predicted to become commonplace in the future.

In the survey, 49.3 percent of respondents said the job role of waiter or waitress was most likely to be replaced by AI, followed by secretary (42.3 percent) and security (40.2 percent).

On the contrary, the occupation of journalist came in as the least replaceable in the survey.

Li Linzi, founder of Whalehouse Technology, a Shenzhen-based automated warehouse solution provider, said that AI technology had improved its warehouse space utilization by six times while reducing manual labor by 70 percent.

Guo Weimin, a spokesperson at the second session of the 13th Chinese People’s Political Consultative Conference (CPPCC), said at a recent press conference that the CPPCC would further boost the integration of AI with the real economy, as well as lift the overall development of AI to a new level.

Source: People’s Daily Online

By Liu Xin

Every time Aiyiti Yiming plays his hand made Dutar, his youngest daughter dances along to the music. It’s a scene that always backs memories of Aiyiti playing the instrument with his departed father.

“I learned how to make these musical instruments from my father when I was 15 years old, and he learned the skills from my grandfather. I earn a living from making these instruments, and I love the music,” Aiyiti said.

Aiyiti was born in 1954 in Jiayi village, Xinhe county in Aksu Prefecture, Northwest China’s Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region. 

“Jiayi” means “residents living along the road” in Uyghur, as all the houses in this village were built along the main road.

Because of his skill, Aiyiti stood out among them. He was named an inheritor of an intangible cultural heritage for making musical instruments of ethnic groups in Xinjiang in 2008, and has trained more than 80 apprentices in Xinhe county.

Visitors to Aiyiti’s house can see two rooms that have been converted into workshops, one for making musical instruments and one for displaying the completed ones. In one workshop, there are piles of wood and half-finished instrument parts, some resembling a large spoon. 

Aiyiti pointed to one of the spoon-like pieces of wood and explained, “This is the Dutar, which is made of mulberry wood. We need to use a special chisel to make the wood into an oval-like shape on one side and make the other side hollow.” 
“It takes dozens of days to complete a Dutar. Take the one which I sell for 30,000 yuan ($4,472), for example. The ornaments on it were made of high-quality ram’s horn and snakeskin. It takes a year to finish making three such Dutar,” Aiyiti said.

Thanks to industrial advances, there is now no need to go to such lengths to produce strings. Aiyiti said that he can now buy the different strings he needs from markets that can guarantee their quality.

But he insists on making the other parts of different musical instruments by hand, and asks all his apprentices to do the same. “Making musical instruments is a craft that needs to be carried forward to the next generation,” he said.

Many households in Jiayi village are considered poverty-stricken families. 

Aiyiti now has more than 10 apprentices learning how to make these instruments with him in his workshops. Many of them are from poverty-stricken families.

Aiyiti’s family also lived a very restricted life when his business selling handmade instruments was not doing well previously. But his circumstances improved after he was named an inheritor of the intangible cultural heritage for making musical instruments of ethnic groups.

Now, the income from his workshops is about 30,000 yuan a month, and his son has opened a shop in Xinhe county selling handmade instruments. 

“I give more than 500 yuan to newcomers a month and offer a monthly salary of 4,000 to 5,000 yuan to apprentices who are more skillful. And we give them free meals,” Aiyiti said.

Aihmeti Rouzi is one of Aiyiti’s apprentices. “My family has no land. But now I am supporting my four-member family by making musical instruments,” he said.

For many families in Jiayi village, making musical instruments has become a way out of poverty. 

Back in May, 2014, the county government approved the establishment of an incubation base for developing businesses related to traditional musical instruments for ethnic groups, offering free training and preferential policies to local residents who make musical instruments and work in the tourism industry, according to Aksu Daily. 

As many cultures in Xinhe county have been identified as intangible heritages, including the craft of making traditional musical instruments, the county government has put forward policies on developing and preserving this heritage. For example, it encourages skilled craftsman like Aiyiti to train apprentices, giving 150,000 yuan in financial support every year.

Other measures include sending apprentices who perform particularly well to study in art academies in Xinjiang, according to the release from Xinhe government. 

“With the full support of different parties in society, I hope more people can learn the beauty of making and playing the musical instruments of different ethnic groups,” he said.

Source: Global Times/People’s Daily